Of Rings, Babies, Cars, and Hats
by dawnindanite
Summary: Sequel to Of Skirts, Pencils, Books, and Ties. "I don't know why you didn't tell me about this, but I assume you have reasons. It's probably because you didn't want anyone to harass me about it during tour, but I'm totally cool about this, I love you and we will raise our baby the best way we know how." Wait, what! James/Katie Jatie


A/N: Hi Readers! As you can see, I have continued with my "Of..." series. I was really inspired to continue with this series because of your amazing feedback on the last two, so thanks! I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own BTR

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Katie sat on the floor, watching bemusedly as the baby in front of her tried to roll over. She giggled, thinking of how the baby reminded her of a turtle. She cocked her head as she looked up at the clock.

"Hey, mom?"

"What is it, sweetie?" Jennifer Knight replied from her room.

"What time did Kendall and the guys say that they were getting back?"

Jennifer stepped out into the living room. She smiled fondly at her only daughter. "Should be any minute now. You miss them don't you?"

"Of course, I do! It's been months since I've last seen those idiots," Katie insulted affectionately as she lifted the baby into her arms. "Who knows what kinds of trouble they've gotten into while touring the world."

Jennifer joined her daughter on the ground. "Don't worry, I'm sure that they've missed you, too."

Katie scoffed good-naturedly. "Oh, I know they missed me. You've seen the multiple care-packages they've sent, even though I've reminded them time and time again that they're the ones away from home, and not me."

Jennifer laughed as she toyed with the baby's fingers. "He's just so precious!" She exclaimed.

Katie giggled, "I know, right? He definitely has his father's eyes."

They continued gushing over the baby until the boys burst through the door.

Katie watched as her older brother frowned at the ease of entering their old apartment at the Palm Woods.

"You know, now that we don't live here anymore, you guys should really learn to lock the door."

Katie and Jennifer stood up quickly. Jennifer ran over to give her biological son and essentially adopted sons welcome back hugs.

Carlos' eyes widened looking at the baby in Katie's arms. "Whoa."

Logan's eyes shot open as well from underneath a cap, dropping his jaw in the process.

Following his friends' gazes, Kendall's green eyes nearly fell out of his head at the sight in front of him.

Carlos bounded over and started playing with the little guy. "Oh my goodness! He's just so cute. Can you say, 'Uncle Carlos?'"

Katie shot Carlos a confused look before turning away and looked for her boyfriend of nearly four years.

"Hey, where's James?"

Kendall babbled in reply, "B-b-baby. B-b-ba-baby."

Logan opened his mouth just as James strolled in whistling happily.

"James!" Katie cried out happily. She handed the baby over to Carlos before running over and squeezing her boyfriend.

James willingly opened up his arms to welcome her. "Hey, Ba...tie. Katie." He glanced a furtive look at Kendall, causing Katie to smirk. He frowned when Kendall didn't make the usual forced gagging sounds that came with any intimate connection between James and Katie. "What's with him?"

Logan pointed at Carlos, words escaping him.

James looked at Carlos with the little boy in his arms. "Hey, whose baby is that?"

Carlos grinned at him in slight disbelief before answering. "He's yours, stupid."

Katie and James shouted simultaneously. "What?"

James looked down at Katie with large eyes but cupped her face lovingly before rushing out, "I don't know why you didn't tell me about this, but I assume you have reasons. It's probably because you didn't want anyone to harass me about it during tour, but I'm totally cool about this, I love you and we will raise our baby the best way we know how. Granted I'm a little more than surprised, I thought we were well protected the last time we...you know. Not to mention, I don't remember it being _that_ long ago."

Katie blushed at his insinuation, while Logan and Carlos groaned.

Jennifer laughed, breaking the awkward tension that had arisen. "Oh, please, you think that I would be this calm if Katie had a baby at her age? What kind of mother would I be? Though, Billy is really cute, I'd rather not end up on an episode of _Teenaged Mothers_. Katie, please wipe that look off your face. You're not going to book a job by appearing on that show!"

Katie grinned wickedly at her mother. She turned to laugh at Kendall and James' relieved faces.

"Relax, you two. Clearly none of us are ready for parenthood. This is Billy, I'm only baby-sitting for Tyler's cousin while they're visiting." She turned to her mother, "Besides, mom, you said it, 'teenaged', last time I checked, I no longer fall under that category since my last birthday."

Katie's amusement turned to confusion when she realized that Logan was still wearing his cap.

"What's with the hat?"

Carlos laughed, still playing with Billy in his arms. "He made a rash decision to get a haircut from a really pretty girl who asked him if she could use him as a model. She forgot to mention that she was still a student at beauty school."

Kendall shook his head and laughed, pulling off Logan's cap. Katie and Jennifer winced when they saw the result of the haircut. Logan had half a head that was unevenly shaven, the other half had frosted tips that were popular in the 1990s.

"That's an...interesting look," Katie said carefully.

Logan groaned, gripping his head.

Jennifer laughed and went over to place her hands on Logan's shoulders in a comforting manner. "Come on, sweetie. Let's see if we can fix this up." She nudged him slightly towards the bathroom.

When the rest of the group heard the door shut, Katie turned her attention back the boys. "So what took you guys so long? We were waiting all day."

James smirked, "Did you miss me?" He hugged Katie from behind.

They knew that Kendall was back to normal when he made a face at the display of affection. To distract him from looking at the couple, Kendall took Billy from Carlos. "We, ah, had some issues at the airport," he bounced Billy up and down as he spoke.

Carlos and James chuckled, causing Katie to look up at James. "What? Tell me."

Carlos grinned widely. "So, Kendall parked his car at the airport before we left so that we could drive home straight away without waiting for Gustavo to send a car to come pick us up which is kinda stupid considering we're pretty jet-lagged. Anyway, we get the car, drive half-way home when suddenly he realizes that it's not his car!"

Katie frowned. "What do you mean it wasn't his car?"

"The valet had given him the wrong car," James piped up. "So we had to drive back to the airport, wait for the valet to come back from his lunch break and then wait for him to find Kendall's car."

Kati smirked at her brother. "How could you not tell that it wasn't your car?"

"They both looked exactly the same!" Kendall defended himself. "And we were jet-lagged! It wasn't only my fault, these guys have been in my car too, they didn't notice either!"

Katie laughed. "What made you realize you had the wrong one?"

"Logan had sneezed and was looking for some tissue paper when he stumbled across a little girl's doll in the back pocket of the driver's seat. That caused everyone to raise eyebrows, and then it finally hit Kendall that it wasn't his car." James explained, kissing Katie's head affectionately.

"Okay, it's been a long few months. I have a legitimate excuse for that mistake. Now if you'll excuse me, I've been craving a pink smoothie for a while now, so I'm going to go down and grab me one," Kendall said before he huffed out of the apartment, transferring Billy back to Carlos, wanting to run away from this embarrassing moment.

Carlos grinned at the baby. "Let's go follow Kendall and see if he'll buy us a smoothie. I bet if you make those cute gurgling sounds at him, he'll definitely buy you one." Carlos looked over at James and Katie. "It's okay if I take him for a walk, right?"

Katie nodded slowly. "Sure."

"Okay, we'll see you later." He made Billy raise his arm to wave good-bye to the couple.

"So, you think he'll realize that babies don't drink smoothies?" Katie asked James, turning around and looking at him dead on.

"He's with Kendall, the baby will be safe. Now," James pulled Katie towards him, "how about you give me a proper welcome back kiss?"

Katie smirked but willing raised her head up. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

James chuckled before heatedly sealing her lips with his own, taking little breaths of oxygen between kisses.

Katie purred happily when she pulled away from his lips. "You have no idea how much I missed that. You are never staying away from me that long again. These lips need attention," she joked, before sweetly gazing into James' eyes. "I missed you."

"I told you to join to us; I would have definitely loved having you on my tour bus with me," James hinted suggestively.

Katie slapped his chest and rolled her eyes. "Really? You've been here less than an hour and already you want to get into my pants."

"You started it!" James exclaimed, but kissed her gently to appease her. "But, I missed you like crazy when I was gone. Do you know how hard it was for me thinking about you here with all these guys lounging half-naked by the pool, probably undressing you with their eyes."

Katie snorted. "Yeah, like that actually happened. And you think I was happy sitting here thinking about all your groupies wearing those suggestive t-shirts and daisy-dukes? I know how much you like those," she squinted her eyes at James.

James paled, "Okay, I'll admit that I do appreciate good set of legs, but," he kept his grip on Katie when she tried to move away. "I swear I never touched any of them or thought of them in that way. Every song we performed I only thought of you," he said sincerely. "This is absolutely nuts how jealous we are of imaginary scenarios. But, you trust me, right? That I would never do anything to hurt you. 'Cause I trust you completely."

"Of course I trust you. I've watched you ignore all the girls who's thrown themselves at you over the years, I know you love me," Katie replied, throwing her arms around James' neck. "Besides, by the way that we have sex, I'm certain that I don't have to worry about competition."

James groaned before pulling her up for a kiss. "You know what you do to me when you speak so bluntly. But seriously," he pulled her down to sit on the orange couch and kneeled in front of her. "We've been together for four years now and we are crazy about each other." He pulled a small velvet box from his pocket, causing Katie to gasp. "Don't say anything yet, just let me explain myself." He opened the box to expose a solitaire diamond. "I want to marry you, Katie. Now, I know that we're still young, and you've just started your acting career and everything, but we don't have to get married right away, I just want the world to know that we belong to each other. We can be engaged for as long as you like. Just tell me that you want to spend the rest of your life with me, like I do with you." He looked hopefully up at Katie.

Katie sat in a frozen state for a few seconds before she slapped James across the face.

"Ow!" James cried, grabbing his face. "Why'd you do that?"

The bathroom door opened and Jennifer stuck her head out. "Everything alright out here? We heard a shout."

"We're okay, mom. It's nothing," Katie said, trying to convey a calm exterior.

"Okay, well I think we're almost done in here, right sweetie?" She turned her head back, talking to Logan.

James and Katie heard Logan groan from inside the bathroom.

Jennifer shook her head smiling, and closed the door.

James turned to Katie. "Mind telling me why you're so angry about me proposing?"

"You can't just throw this at me the second you come back!" Katie hissed, trying to keep her voice down. "What if this is...I don't know, some sort of side effect of homesickness?"

James raised an eyebrow. "That's a bit extreme don't you think? Now, why don't you tell me why you don't want to marry me?"

Katie sighed and walked over to James and laid a hand on his cheek, recognizing that she had severely injured him both physically and emotionally. "Listen, James. I love you, you know that, but we've been hiding our relationship from the public for years, now all of sudden you want to announce to the world that we're engaged? You would give every tabloid editor a coronary with this news."

"Katie, no one would care if we come out publicly, I mean, I'm just a member of a boy band and you're a newbie actress. We're hardly Brangelina. Though," He flicked his head and ran a hand across his hair, "we'd definitely look amazing on the front page."

"Deflate your ego, boy," Katie mumbled, rolling her eyes. "But, I see your point."

"Katie," James ran his hands down her arms and looked at her with a smirk. "I'm going to ask you again, will you marry me? I promise, we'll stay engaged for as long as you want. We don't have to go public if you don't want...you know, as long as you wear the ring in private. We'll do this your way."

Katie grinned at him. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes, I'll marry you!"

James let out a sigh of relief and smiled wildly. "Oh, thank goodness! You seriously had me worried! You don't make things easy for me."

"No, I don't, but would you want me any other way? Are you going to give me my ring, now?"

James chuckled. He pulled the ring out of the box and slid it on to her ring finger. "I would love you even if you were circus-folk, but I do love you exactly the way you are, most." He cupped her face again. "Thank you for making me the happiest man on Earth, Katie. I love you."

"I love you, too," Katie whispered back before leaning up to kiss him.

James pulled away for a second, "Exactly how much time have you been spending with Camille? My cheek really hurts."

Katie laughed, before pulling him down for another kiss.

They ignored the front door opening behind them.

"Really? Why do I always have to walk in on you guys like this?" Kendall sighed in exasperation as he and Carlos walked into the apartment. "Will you two please learn how to keep your hands off each other for two sec−what the heck is that on your hand?"

Kendall slammed his smoothie down on the counter before rushing over to Katie and James. "That's a ring. That's a ring!"

Carlos bounced over, cradling Billy to his chest. "Whoa, nice rock! Congratulations, guys!"

"No! No! No! You're too young. This isn't happening." Kendall started pacing before stopping to point at the couple with delirious green eyes. "This violates everything in the contract!"

James groaned, slouching onto the couch. "Oh geez, not the contract again."

"Hey, this in no way breaks the contract. We've stuck to every one of your crazy rules," Katie stated, crossing her arms, staring at her brother.

"What is going on out here?" Jennifer Knight cried out, running out of the bathroom, Logan hot on her heels, still wearing his hat.

"Mom! Look...just look," Kendall shouted, as his finger shook, pointing at Katie's finger.

"Oh, honey!" Jennifer gasped, examining Katie's ring. "It's beautiful. James, you have extraordinary taste in jewellery."

James shrugged modestly.

"Mom, you're okay with this?" Kendall cried out again in disbelief.

Jennifer nodded. "Yes, honey. I trust that James and your sister can make the best decision. They're both adults, and have been dating for a few years now. They are perfectly capable of making their own decisions. Honey," she draped her arms around her son, "you know that you would trust no one with Katie other than one of your best friends. And for the love of me, would you drop it with that silly contract already?"

Kendall turned to Logan. "Please tell me that marriage is not in the contract. I think I remember something about Katie never marrying, _ever_!"

Logan coughed into his fist, looking sheepish as he always did when the guys put him on the stop. "Um, actually, no."

Carlos laughed, rocking Billy. "Oh come on, Kendall. It's not that bad. Katie's happy, James is happy, Billy's happy. One big happy family."

Katie and James rolled their eyes and simultaneously told him, "He's not our kid!"

Katie sighed again and approached Kendall. "Please, can't you just be happy for me big brother? You know I wouldn't do anything that would hurt you, and being with James, well it feels really good, and not in the way you think. Well, yes in the way you think, but in general too," Katie smirked quickly before looking up at Kendall with earnest eyes. "Please? You know that we love each other."

Kendall looked at Katie and James and sighed. "I guess I really have no choice, do I?"

James grinned and sidled up to Katie. "Don't worry, Kendall. I promise you another contract, one that I will honour for the rest of my life."

His bandmates groaned audibly thinking about how James could overkill it with the verbose romantics.

Kendall sighed again. "Just, don't hurt her."

Carlos grinned, setting Billy down in his stroller. "So, Mama Knight, did you manage to fix Logan's hair?"

"Well, it's even now. He'll be sporting a buzz cut for the next while though."

Katie grinned, "Shame. I kind of wanted him to rock that half-90s pop star look a little longer. It's definitely a one of a kind look."

While the others laughed, Logan threw Katie a dirty look. "You know that you want to be on my good side, right? Considering that we're the ones probably going to be doing everything for your wedding...you really need to get some girlfriends."

"Um, we're not getting married for a fairly long time," Katie clarified. "And I do have girlfriends. They just don't know who I am, yet," she added crossing her arms, causing the others to laugh again.

"Who knew that James would be the first one of us to walk down the aisle?" Carlos said once he had calmed down.

"Well, if Katie and James want to stay engaged for a little while, technically one of you could still beat him to the punch. Now, who wants corndogs and taters?" Jennifer said as she moved into the kitchen to start dinner while the boys pondered her answer.

Katie shrugged. "She's got a point. You guys could totally propose to your girlfriends and get hitched before we do. But, the real question is, how are you going to deal with crushing all of your fangirls' hearts when we announce that we're engaged?" She asked, directing her question to her newly instated fiancé.

"Wait," James said grinning, "we're going public with this?"

Katie shrugged, "Why not? I think it's time the world knew that James Diamond is off the market." She winked before giving him a peck on the lips.

"Ugh. You guys really nauseate me," Kendall said, seemingly getting over the shock of the engagement by returning to his blatant disgust of their public displays of affection. He grabbed his smoothie and took a big slurp.

Carlos chuckled again, "Whoa, you guys are really going to be brothers now. Imagine if I had a sister and Logan married her? We'd be brothers, too!"

The group all raised their eyebrows imagining a female version of Carlos.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Logan replied to Carlos' idea. "So who's going to tell Gustavo the news that one of his 'desirable' boy band members is officially off-limits?"

Knowing that the temperamental producer would be mortified with the news of the engagement, Katie and James looked at and pointed to the other. "Not it!"

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A/N: With everything I've been writing lately, I'm clearly on-board with the whole "James and Katie are soulmates" thing. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it! This will probably be the last installment, but who knows, I may come up with something else if I get inspired or if there's more positive responses from you guys!

Also, if you readers are fans of _Hollywood Management_, I'll be posting the first chapter to its sequel/companion right after this, titled _Hollywood Coaching_!

Thanks for reading and please leave a review, would love to hear the feedback!

Love,

Dawnindanite


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